Outtatown Site 2: South Africa: Simons Town

This write-up is written about the events that happened from February 4th – 8th
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This past week we had a number of speakers come and talk to us about various methods and programs that are being used to help work towards a better future for South Africa. The main speaker of the week was a man named Rodney. Rodney’s expertise is in conflict resolution, a topic I was already interested in, but Rodney’s dramatic, interactive lecturing style led me to enjoy the subject that much more. He was able, through the way he approached the issue as well as with a few key activities, to show us how the ability to resolve conflict is not only necessary in large instances, such as the Apartheid, but also in our day-to day lives.

Outlining his ideas for us with large sheets of paper and marker, we learned about the basic types of conflict that we will encounter, as well as what the root causes for these conflicts may be. In one session we all paired up and practiced techniques for effective debating, learning how to get our point across to our opponent while still listening and responding to exactly what they said. But of all the activities, my favourite turned out to be a short test we were given, which was designed to show us what methods we regularly use when dealing with conflict.

Class was great, but all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so we also had a lot of fun playing in the ocean, planning Bible study for out small groups and playing more card games than can possibly be healthy for us. One evening our entertainment committee planned a brilliant indoors beach party, complete with massive amounts of fruit, palm branches and the limbo (which was won by our very own Jacob Droogh). One morning some o us crazy people even woke up at 4 am to hike up a nearby mountain and most of us reached the top just in time to witness a beautiful sunrise.

Written by: Gabriel Brunk